Debate Puts Democrats On Air

ELECTION 2002

Broadcast Gives Jones, Mcbride, Reno A Statewide Stage

August 27, 2002|By Mark Silva, Sentinel Political Editor

TALLAHASSEE -- This could be someone's make-it or break-it night.

Democrats Janet Reno, Bill McBride and Daryl Jones will get their one-and-only opportunity on free television statewide to argue why they should get the chance to battle Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in November. Their one-hour debate will air live at 7 p.m.

"All three of them stand to win something," said Bob Poe, Florida Democratic Party chairman.

All three stand to lose something as well, in an encounter carried by NBC stations from Miami to Pensacola -- including WESH-NewsChannel 2 in Central Florida.

"It's everywhere -- the whole state is blanketed," said Gayle Pallesen, executive director of the debate-sponsoring Forum Club of the Palm Beaches, staging the face-off in a filled, 750-seat theater of Palm Beach Community College.

This single showcase for the Democratic Party's nominees comes two weeks before the Sept. 10 primary election.

If they hold to the polite terms by which they have waged an extraordinary yearlong campaign -- the cleanest contest among Florida Democrats in two decades -- they will avoid personal assaults on one another.

The show offers each Democrat a unique platform that none of them has had, until now. For the universally known Reno, it is a chance to redefine herself for many voters. For the lesser-known McBride and Jones, it is their formal introduction.

For any of them, success could be measured in a memorable one-liner -- something in the tradition of the late Gov. Lawton Chiles' dismissal of the greener Bush in a 1994 debate: "The old he-coon walks just before the light of day."

Or the way 73-year-old Ronald Reagan handled former Vice President Walter Mondale in 1984: "I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience."

Failure could come as swiftly as a simple misspoken word, a "senior moment" for the 57-year-old McBride or 64-year-old Reno, or a caustic comment from a 47-year-old Jones frustrated by two front-runners overshadowing him.

"Debates are strange birds," Washington-based media expert David Doak said. "You guys score them, and there is no objective way to score them, so they tend to be who is the aggressor, who is the defender and who gets off the best one-liner."

This will be the first chance for Reno to address Floridians on her own terms, confronting a pre-formed image many have of a famous public figure.

Reno, the former U.S. attorney general who served President Clinton for two terms, entered this contest as runaway front-runner among Democrats. Reno, a native Miamian, counts on carrying her party's nomination with a strong vote in South Florida -- home to one-third or more of the Democratic primary's voters.

Yet, throughout the rest of Florida, Reno must confront the negative views many voters have of a well-known and widely disliked personality. She also must appear forceful, dispelling any questions about her health.

"Janet is going to make a compelling case for why she is the best candidate to take on Jeb Bush in the fall," said Reno's campaign manager, Mo Elleithee, predicting a punch-free debate. "This entire campaign has been a very friendly campaign, and I would be surprised if anyone takes it down a different road."

This will be Bill McBride's debut on a statewide political stage. The Tampa-area lawyer, who resigned as managing partner of Florida's biggest law firm to wage his first campaign for public office, is making a name for himself in a new arena.

He started this campaign with little name recognition statewide, yet a month-plus run of paid TV ads by the Florida Education Association, his own campaign and the Florida Democratic Party has scored significant gains for him throughout quarters of Central and North Florida, where he hopes to overcome Reno's lead.

"We're still the underdog," said Doak, McBride's media consultant. "We are just going to try to go in there and score some points."

For McBride, his adviser said, the goal tonight is explaining a vision for improving public education that is the mainstay of his campaign.

"The key thing he needs to do strategically is to keep doing what he is doing, just stay on his message," Doak said. "Any candidate who spends six to eight months talking about education gets sick of it. But the truth is, the public hasn't heard them yet. So we have to go in there talking about what we've been talking about."

For the one candidate lacking any paid TV ads of his own and still largely unknown, tonight's debate is a singular opportunity to stake his claim.

Jones, a lawyer and state senator from south Miami-Dade County, has served in the Legislature for 12 years. He is the first black person to run for governor in modern times. Yet, with little money raised for his campaign, he has made little impression in public-opinion polls. Initially, the debate's sponsors denied him a seat because of his single-digit standing in the surveys.